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More Than Meets the Eye was the title of Alan Brown’s talk when he visited Alnwick and District Camera Club. Alan, who is a retired teacher from Whitburn, is an experienced communicator and used his skills to engage with his audience. After an introductory talk about people’s reaction to art and images in general, he showed a series of his prints and asked club members to comment on them. As to be expected in such a friendly club as this, there was plenty of response, leading to a good natured and enthusiastic discussion. Alan’s lively sense of humour was well in evidence and added to the enjoyment of these interactions.
The point of Alan’s presentation was to show how judges often tend to assess pictures mainly on their composition rather than their content. Whilst composition can be very important, Alan feels that every picture should tell a story and that photographers should not be reluctant to present challenges to those viewing their pictures. This is an attitude shared by many club members, but it is useful to reinforce the message.
Street photography is Alan’s forte and he spends much time exploring the streets of towns and cities to capture his pictures. He is particularly fond of images in which people are photographed against a background of advertising posters where the juxtaposition asks questions of society in general. Some of these images were extremely humorous while others had a darker side. Alan is quite willing to wait in front of a suitable background until the right combination of people appears and his patience is often rewarded with a memorable image. He somehow seems to melt into the background and often manages to take his pictures without his subject’s awareness. He makes no attempt to conceal his camera and stops taking pictures if people appear to be uncomfortable.
To complete his presentation, Alan showed an extensive series of projected digital images of his people pictures, including an impressive series taken on the London underground.
Report by David Carter
Alnwick and District Camera Club welcomed David Phillips from Hartlepool to judge the final two print competitions of the season. David is a very well respected judge whose visits are always welcomed. His enthusiasm is always evident as he comments on pictures with valuable insights and helpful and encouraging comments.
Both competitions were open so there was an extremely good variety of pictures to enjoy and David was highly complementary about the overall standard of work submitted.
The first competition to be judged was for monochrome prints where Ambleside Under Cloud by Dru Dodd, Indian Shepherd by Laine Baker and Watching by David Carter were all commended. Highly commended were Life On The Street by Jane Coltman, Open Door by Alastair Cochrane and Torness Power Station by Nick Johnson. In fourth place was American Isolationism by Micheal Mundy, a well seen and composed image of a man walking through a gateway, while in third place was Approaching Alston Station by Dave Dixon, a nicely printed, warm toned railway picture with a suitable period feel. Second place also went to Micheal Mundy for Sleeper, a beautifully lit, low key portrait of a sleeping man, but first place was awarded to Dru Dodd for The Kelpies, an extremely dramatic image of these iconic Scottish sculptures.
In the colour competition, those commended were Minster Perspective by David Carter, Retrieving Is My Joy by Andrew Mackie and Three Little Birds by Dru Dodd, while Berwick Old Bridge by Ian Atkinson, Northumberland Snowscape by Nick Johnson and Puppy by Alastair Cochrane were all highly commended. Fourth place was awarded to Laine Baker for Indian Beauty, an extremely attractive, gently coloured portrait, and third place to Dru Dodd for Highland Water, a spectacular Scottish winter landscape. In second place was Dave Dixon with Approaching Storm, a finely detailed landscape with a wonderful sky but the winner of first place was Jane Coltman with Sycamore Gap Aurora, a memorable image of a much photographed location.
Report by David Carter
Alnwick and District Camera Club’s latest meeting was an evening of contrasts provided by club members Rosalee Cook-Jury, John Strong, Dave Dixon and Roger Black.
Rosalee started with an introductory illustrated talk about her photographic interests which she divided into six categories. These were entitled In the House, Flowers Outdoors, Seaside, Sky, People and Orchids. While Rosalee claims to have little technical knowledge of photography, she certainly has a good eye for a picture. She has a very bold and individual style and focuses strongly on form and colour, producing results which are often refreshingly different. This was followed by a highly enjoyable audio visual presentation of her pictures accompanied by the music of the Polish instrumental ensemble Kroke.
John Strong followed with a fascinating photographic survey of the machines that he had encountered during his fifty year career as a driver of heavy plant. He showed an amazing range of diggers, dozers, graders and dump trucks and talked about the hardships and hazards encountered in working with them. However, the highlight of his presentation was an account of his visit to the Caterpillar demonstration ground in Malaga. There, an impressive range of the latest earth moving equipment was in action, culminating in The Big Push, when a row of massive bulldozers push a tidal wave of earth towards the audience.
Since retiring, John has developed his photographic skills which he demonstrated with a beautiful audio visual presentation on the Coquet River as it flows from its source to the sea.
The two print galleries by Dave Dixon and Roger Black shared an architectural theme but in very different ways. Dave presented a series of telling images of Newcastle buildings from the T Dan Smith era to show how they had fared over the years while Roger’s reportage-style pictures provided a photographic record of the demolition of a neighbouring house and its replacement by a new high tech residence.
Report by David Carter
Two competitions were on the agenda at the latest meeting of Alnwick and District Camera Club.
First up was the Alastair Cochrane Progress Award which is open to members who have not previously been placed in a club competition.
The three excellent judges were club members Margaret Whittaker, Dawn Groves and Laine Baker who gave considered and constructive comments.
Tom Dundas showed a set of three abstract images, formed from a feature at Alnwick Garden, Rosie Cook-Jury created images from plant life and the winner was Mick Mick McMahon who had produced a fine set of wildlife images.
The second competition was the Reportage Award where a series of images, shown in any form, are to tell a story. The judge was last year's winner Jane Coltman.
A series of photographs showing the stained glass windows in the church of St John The Baptist at Alnmouth were shown by Rosie Cook-Jury.
The brave souls taking part in the Alnmouth New Year's Day Dip were depicted by Tom Dundas, his images illustrating the chilly conditions and the light-hearted spirit of the event.
Third up was an AV by Jean Findlay, which had been shot during a two day trek to Marmaloda, the highest mountain in the Dolomites. Jean's images conveyed the scale of the impressive area by showing tiny human figures against the scree covered landscape and pictures where the viewers eye was pulled through to the mist and cloud-filled background behind the enormous rocky outcrops. Jean had selected Haydn's Suprise Symphony to accompany her images and the two together created a very impressive AV which was deservedly judged to be the winner.
Report by Jane Coltman
Malcolm Kus was the judge for Alnwick and District Camera Club’s open projected digital image competition. Malcolm is a frequent and welcome visitor to the club, not least for his abilities as an excellent judge, able to assess and select pictures on the night without having seen them previously. With a strong entry of seventy eight images covering a wide range of subjects from landscape and architecture to portraits, still life and wildlife, choosing ten winning pictures was no mean challenge but Malcolm rose magnificently to the task. After a brief run through of all of the pictures, Malcolm then dealt with the images one by one, providing detailed analysis and encouraging comments for every entry.
Commended were Trig Point Star Trails by Dave Dixon, Clean Sweep by Ian Atkinson and Ready to Rumble by Paul Penman while Ghostly Gull by Valerie Atkinson, Sulphur Cave by Margaret Whittaker and Dawn at 8000 feet by Jean Findlay were all highly commended. In fourth place was Ian Atkinson with At Peace with his Pipe, a colourful portrait of a colourful Indian character, while in third place was Laine Baker with Sunset Angel, an original and wonderfully atmospheric image of the Angel of the North. Ian Atkinson also took second place with Uphill in the Rain, a excellent picture of an elderly lady struggling up a cobbled street with her umbrella and walking stick, but first place went to Jane Coltman for Catch Me If You Can, a beautifully composed silhouette picture of a young child chasing pigeons.
To complete the evening, Kevin Murray presented a spectacular print gallery of superb wildlife photographs, including roe deer, red squirrels, hares and a range of sea birds and land birds.
Report by David Carter
Land, Sea and Sky was the title of Dave Dixon’s presentation to Alnwick and District Camera Club. Dave is a club member, well known for his fine photography, so it was no surprise that his talk included a wonderful collection of pictures, both in colour and monochrome.
Starting with some early morning pictures taken on the beaches of Northumberland, Dave talked about capturing the light using a sun compass for predicting the precise position of the rising sun. A sequence of pictures gave some idea of the enormous variety of images that can be achieved at this time of day, providing that you are willing to get up early enough.
Dave then went on to talk about the challenges of landscape photography where one has a vast expanse of land and sky to deal with. Not only must the image be well composed with correct illumination of land features, but the sky must also be interesting and correctly exposed. This may require the use of filters or high dynamic range techniques and a tripod is almost obligatory. However, even when lighting conditions are poor, it is often possible to achieve good results by converting images to monochrome.
These skills are just as important when taking pictures of sunsets and Dave showed some fine examples. He also gave advice on creating foreground interest, often using something as simple as a protruding rock. He also uses a wide angle lens to create dramatic effects when taking pictures that might otherwise seem run of the mill.
Capturing the movement of water is another of Dave’s particular interests and this he achieves by careful control of exposure times. The results can vary from the subtle, with slight movement effects, to the extreme, where water simply appears as a misty film. For long exposures it is usually necessary to use a neutral density filter and Dave has even improvised an extreme version using a sheet of welder’s glass.
Finally, Dave moved on to the sky with some impressive star trail pictures. Once again, he was willing to describe the methods he used. It soon became evident that this type of photography requires a considerable amount of time, effort and fortitude.
This was a most informative and interesting evening, spiced with Dave’s good humour.
Report by David Carter
Alnwick and District Camera Club’s latest meeting featured the talents of a number of its own members, giving them the opportunity to show some of their favourite pictures and talk about them.
Stanley Trafford set the ball rolling with some interesting prints of birds and ice features taken on a recent trip to West Antarctica. He talked about the problems of taking pictures in such a hostile environment where weather conditions are seldom conducive to successful photography.
Andrew Mackie was next with a photographic record of a day trip in a light aircraft from Newcastle to the Isle of Mull, including some fascinating aerial photographs of the Northumberland coast. He went on to a show a fine sequence of pictures of Scottish wildlife and scenery.
Elizabeth Gordon then showed some of her favourite pictures, including two excellent bird portraits, a wonderful achievement given her fear of feathers. Many of her pictures included a watery element, usually with some beautiful reflections.
Ian Atkinson had recently returned from a trip to India and showed a fine selection of images of temples, forts and colourful characters. While some of his pictures of the Taj Mahal were quite conventional, others approached the subject in a different way and captured the subtle beauty of this iconic building most successfully.
Carol McKay’s fine miscellany of pictures covered a wide range of subjects both in colour and monochrome, including Scottish landscapes, buildings in Newcastle, castles, spiders, dragonflies and much more.
Last but by no means least was a most unusual gallery of high key minimalist monochrome prints by John Thompson. John talked about the way in which he had achieved these striking images and explained that this was part of a new project that was still in the developmental stage. An interesting conclusion to an entertaining and informative evening.
Report by David Carter
The X factor came to Alnwick and District Camera Club when the set subject for its latest print competition was the letter X. The thirty nine entries displayed an amazing variety of interpretation of the subject with some picture titles stretching imagination to the limits. Pictures ranged from x-ray images to still life and landscapes, making this an exceptionally difficult competition to judge, requiring expertise, experience and excellent understanding of the exacting requirements of the competition. On this occasion, the entire audience was the judge, with members voting for their favourite pictures. Each member was allowed to award points for their five favourite pictures with five points going to their first choice down to one point for their fifth. At the end of the evening, the points were totalled in an exemplary manner by examiners Richard Stent and Gerry Simpson before the results were announced to an expectant audience.
Commended were Hopscotch by Alastair Cochrane, The X-shaped Church by Gerry Simpson and X Roof Details by Ian Atkinson, while X-ray of X Chair by Margaret Whittaker, The Bluemill Wicket by Andrew Mackie and X Trails by Valerie Atkinson were all highly commended.
In fourth place, with 27 points, was Ropey X by Valerie Atkinson, a well seen image of a knotted rope on a fence, and in third place, with 41 points, was X-hibitionist by Jane Coltman, a creative image of a dancing figure in a vaulted hall. Second place went to Elizabeth Gordon, with 72 points for eXercise, a beautifully photographed image of a multi person bicycle but runaway winner with 84 points, was Gerry Simpson with Scrambled eX(gg)s on Toast, an extravagantly humorous and well executed photograph that needs no further explanation.
This was an exciting and exceedingly enjoyable evening, demonstrating that photography can be extremely good fun. With meetings as extraordinary as this, future growth of club membership could be exponential
Report by David Carter
The audience enjoyed a lively and entertaining evening when Alnwick and District Camera Club welcomed members of Tynemouth Photographic Society for an exchange visit. Five members of the Tynemouth club gave presentations, covering a wide range of photographic techniques and subjects.
First was Thomas Heaton with some superb snowy and icy landscapes. He likes to get close to nature and is prepared to undergo all manner of hardships in order to obtain his pictures, often camping overnight to be first on the scene in the morning. Pictures from warmer climes included some taken in South Africa and Costa Rica.
Next was John McGuinness with a series of excellent landscapes from Northumberland, Yorkshire, the Lake District and elsewhere. John is also a master of digital manipulation and showed some good examples of high dynamic range and composite pictures. He also enjoys wildlife subjects which featured in his final set of images.
Larry Bedigan specialises in portrait and figure photography, both in the studio and outdoors. He showed an impressive series of high key and low key images demonstrating his skills in handling both studio and natural lighting. In complete contrast, Larry is also a fine underwater photographer as demonstrated by a stunning sequence of pictures of exotic marine life.
Howard Wilson is noted for his audio visual presentations and the two sequences that he showed were extremely well put together. The first, entitled Stone and Sand, was a beautiful set of images capturing the essence of the North East coast while his second sequence, entitled Big River, was a fascinating collection of historic photographs of the Tyne accompanied by the music of Jimmy Nail.
Last, but by no means least, Arthur Smith presented Tynemouth’s highly successful print entry for the Northern Counties Photographic Federation’s club championship. Each print was accompanied by an extremely interesting and humorous commentary.
To complete a most enjoyable evening, Alnwick club members Jane Coltman and Laine Baker presented an excellent gallery of their favourite colour and monochrome prints.
Report by David Carter
Joe Grabham from Durham Photographic Society was the speaker at Alnwick and District Camera Club’s latest meeting. The title of his presentation was Every Picture Tells a Story and Joe certainly had plenty of stories to tell.
Starting with his early work in black and white photography, Joe demonstrated the successful use of simplicity and pattern which are evident in many of his pictures. The human element also plays an important part and he likes to include a person somewhere in the picture if possible.
He has always been adventurous in his use of techniques and early on experimented with the use of infra red film to produce pictures that are different and often quite beautiful. His mastery of composition means that he is never afraid to break the rules in order to produce the effect he is aiming at.
Moving on to colour photography, Joe showed how he applied the same principles as those used in his monochrome work. However, the advent of digital photography made it much easier to control the final images and has opened up a wide range of creative possibilities.
Creative digital manipulation can range from the removal or repositioning of small objects in the picture to montages where several images are blended together to create a completely new and different image. Joe is a master of the latter technique, allowing him to create pictures that tell a specific story. He deliberately seeks out subjects that he can blend together in this way. The results may not always be to everyone’s taste but there is no doubting his imagination and ingenuity as well as the extremely high technical quality of his pictures.
Joe went on to present a bewildering array of quality pictures demonstrating his prowess in creative photography of all kinds. This was an evening that provided plenty of inspiration and food for thought.
Report by David Carter
Alnwick and District Camera Club’s Northumberland Plate competition is for photographs taken solely in the county. This year’s competition, for projected digital images, had no set subject so entries ranged widely from landscapes to portraits and wildlife, both in colour and monochrome. On this occasion, club members were the judges, awarding points to their five favourite pictures. At the end of the evening, the points were totalled to find the winners.
Commended were Pastel Sunset by David Burn, Ford Graveyard by Ian Atkinson and Alliums by Margaret Whittaker while Storm Clouds, Holy Island by Jane Coltman, A Place to Sit by Nick Johnson and What’s Round the Corner by Rosalee Cook Jury were all highly commended.
In fourth place was Coquet Haze, a delicately coloured seascape by David Burn and in third place, Hauxley Egret, a superb monochrome bird portrait by Edwin Dinsdale. Second place went to a dramatic early morning picture entitled Bamburgh Dawn by Jane Coltman and Jane also took first place with Masted Ship off Coquet Island, a striking high key monochrome image of an unusual subject.
To complete the evening, there was an interesting mixed gallery of pictures by Athol Swanston and David Carter. Athols’ prints included landscapes from Scotland and Northumberland, wildlife on the Farne Islands and even some abstract images while David’s subjects included New Zealand buildings, York Minster, Leeds Canal and the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield.
Report by David Carter
Sleepers was the title of the presentation given to Alnwick and District Camera Club by club member Micheal Mundy. Micheal commenced his talk by outlining our fascination with the subject of sleep, using illustrations of paintings, sculpture and other artwork from various stages of our history ranging from ancient Greece to the present day.
Despite the interest in the art world, this has not been a subject widely or systematically treated by photographers. One exception was the American photographer Ted Spagna who used time lapse photography to record people asleep in bed. His pictures have proved to be of great interest to those involved in the scientific study of sleep patterns.
Micheal’s approach to the subject has been a very different one. His interest in death masks led him create a similar type of image for the faces of sleeping subjects, where the features are completely relaxed and totally different to their appearance whilst awake and alert. Each subject was seated in a chair with his or her shoulders shrouded with black fabric so that only the head was visible. Micheal then waited while they fell asleep, recording images by daylight using a Leica monochrome camera. The subsequent images were processed using a range of digital manipulation programmes to produce a series of quite amazing prints, with faces portrayed against a black background. Despite their somewhat sombre appearance, these had a peaceful and tranquil quality that was quite beautiful.
As an offshoot, Micheal also started to photograph people asleep on trains and other modes of public transport. Although these were mostly taken using only a iphone, the quality of the images was remarkable, proving that it is the photographer rather than the type of camera that is most important when taking pictures. After a while, he became concerned about the ethics of taking such pictures without permission and abandoned this part of the project.
Micheal went on to discuss various implications of people sleeping in public, or in the case of his work, in front of the photographer. This implies an element of trust, which is reassuring in a world where so much uncertainty and conflict is rife.
The evening continued with a presentation of vibrant images of India by Laine Baker and Jane Coltman. Taken on a trip in 2013, their pictures included richly decorated architecture, colourful clothing and smiling people, despite the squalor and poverty that was evident almost everywhere.
Finally, there was a fine gallery of prints by Paul Penman. These featured excellent colour pictures taken in some favourite places visited during the last year, including New York, Venice, Puglia and the Isle of Skye.
Report by David Carter
The main feature of Alnwick and District Camera Club’s latest meeting was a presentation of projected digital images of photographic prints selected by members of the London Salon for their 2014 exhibition. The London Salon of Photography is a body of photographers with international membership whose sole aim is to exhibit annually the very best of pictorial photography. This selection of 76 images was presented by Alnwick Camera Club president John Thompson, who spoke about the pictures and invited comments from members of the audience.
The variety of subject matter was wide, although there was a particularly strong representation of people pictures, ranging from street photographs to formal portraits. Other subjects included everything from landscapes to still life but the greatest variety was in the manner in which these subjects had been treated. A large proportion of the pictures were in monochrome with high key, graphic and soft focus techniques put to good use while colour pictures ranged from soft and delicate to strong and powerful. Many subjects were treated in a minimalist way but others were highly detailed, some making use of high dynamic range techniques. One surprising aspect was the use of humour in a number of pictures – a welcome departure in an exhibition of this nature.
Audience reaction to these pictures was also varied and lead to some interesting discussion.
This was an interesting and stimulating presentation which should encourage members to be more adventurous with their photography.
The evening was completed by an unusual gallery of prints shared by Pat Wood and Peter Downs. Pat showed a series of pictures taken in Edinburgh and Blyth alongside some of her own artwork inspired by photographs while Peter showed a series of digitally manipulated images alongside small prints of the original photographs on which they were based.
Report by David Carter
Alnwick and District Camera Club’s latest competition was for sets of three prints, either in colour or monochrome. Club member Geoffrey Bradford was judge for the evening, commenting not only on how well each set held together as a group of three but also highlighting special points of interest in individual pictures. He pointed out the importance of keeping a balance between all three pictures - it always seems to be that elusive third picture that causes the problem. Geoffrey has an engaging personal style of judging that is much more interactive than most. After making his comments he offered each entrant the opportunity to talk about their pictures which lead to some interesting discussions.
There were twenty two entries covering a wide range of subjects both in colour and monochrome. Commended sets were Otter by Andrew Mackie, Lumen Flowers by Alastair Cochrane and Farne Island Puffins by Gordon Charlton, while Alnmouth Church Windows by Rosalee Cook Jurie, Remembering 9/11 by Jane Coltman and Words by Gordon Farrington were all highly commended. In fourth place was Taking a Break in Venice, three well composed monochrome people pictures by Richard Stent, and in third place, Gone Rockpooling, a nicely chosen set of lovely summertime images by Valerie Atkinson.
David Carter’s colourful pictures of broken tractor lamps, entitled Ancient Lights, took second place but first place was awarded to Micheal Mundy for a superb set of finely detailed monochrome images of groups of people, entitled Interactions.
Report by David Carter
Knockout competitions are always popular at Alnwick and District Camera Club and the latest one, for projected digital images, attracted 112 entries from 30 members. Pictures were projected in pairs and voted on by a show of hands until all but the winners were eliminated.
As there was no fixed subject, the capacity audience was treated to a wide range of pictures, both in colour and monochrome, including landscapes, street scenes, portraits, architecture, still life and natural history, amongst others.
Although there is always an element of chance in such competitions where strong entries may be pitted against each other in early rounds, four fine pictures survived to reach the winning places.
In fourth place was a delicately coloured image of Roker Pier by David Burn, while Rosalee Cook Jury took third place with a well seen portrait of a young boy, entitled Which Way. David Burn also took second place with Moon River, an excellent night time landscape, but clear winner of first place was Ian Atkinson with Uphill in the Rain, a superb picture of an elderly woman trudging up a cobbled street in Portugal.
The evening was completed by an extensive gallery of colourful prints by Rosalee Cook Jury, including some fascinating images of flowers, people and landscapes.
Report by David Carter
Presentations by members have become a regular feature of Alnwick and District Camera Club’s programme and the latest one by Dru Dodd more than lived up to expectations. Dru is renowned for his fine landscapes and night time skyscapes, many of which he showed during the evening, but his presentation revolved around the technical aspects of photography. As a trained scientist, he relishes the challenges that difficult conditions present and, to a great extent, this drives his whole approach to taking pictures.
It is unusual for a photographer of his calibre to be willing to reveal the secrets of his success but Dru was generous with his advice about the wide range of techniques that he uses.
He emphasized the importance of balancing the light in his pictures, which he achieves mainly by the use of graduated filters. For most of his work he uses a tripod, essential for the many images he takes using long exposures.
Most of Dru’s photographic work takes place in camera, with relatively little left for digital manipulation on the computer. One exception is the blending of multiple exposures for pictures of subjects such as city lights and star trails.
Panoramic pictures are another of Dru’s specialities and he showed a number of spectacular examples. To achieve these he uses a specialist tripod bracket that allows a series of pictures to be taken that can be stitched together digitally without any distortion.
Dru covered many other topics including depth of focus, use of flash and use of polarising and neutral density filters. Finally he even gave advice on what clothing to wear, an important issue for dedicated photographers like Dru who work at all times of day and night, often in freezing temperatures. This was a most inspiring and informative presentation, illustrated by a series of superb pictures.
To complete the evening, Ian Atkinson and Doug Ross jointly presented a fine gallery of prints. Ian’s pictures, all taken in Turkey, featured colour and monochrome images of Hagia Sophia, Roman ruins and the spectacular landscape of Cappadocia, while Doug’s striking monochrome prints, using a wide range of approaches from high key to high contrast, were mostly taken in Northumberland.
Report by David Carter
Club nights are a regular feature at Alnwick and District Camera Club and print knockout competitions are particularly popular as they allow every member of the audience to participate. Prints are displayed randomly in pairs and members vote for their favourites by a show of hands until all but the winners are eliminated. This requires careful organisation and the evening was ably coordinated by Jane Coltman and Laine Baker.
There were a large number of entries for this fun event which promotes plenty of friendly banter along the way. However, the quality of pictures entered was of the usual high standard and covered a wide range of subjects both in colour and monochrome.
With print competitions of this kind, it is important that pictures have an instant impact and those with a strong composition tend to be most successful. It is often quite challenging to decide between two pictures of very different subjects although this is a problem that regularly confronts club competition judges.
In many cases the voting was very close, so much so that, in the final analysis, second place was shared between Doug Ross and Andrew Mackie. Doug’s print, entitled Provencale Steps, was a classic example of a finely composed image that captured the warmth of the South of France, while Andrew’s delicately coloured picture of derelict boats, entitled Graveyard at Salen, was equally successful in recording the peaceful atmosphere of a scene on the Isle of Mull. However, first place went to Dru Dodd’s superbly captured night time image of the poppy installation at the Tower of London which he had poignantly entitled One More Soldier Reporting for Duty Sir.
Report by David Carter
Alan Porrett from Whitley Bay Photographic Society was the judge for Alnwick and District Camera Club’s set of three projected digital image competition. Alan talked about the way in which he assessed digital image sets, which differed from how he would judge sets of prints, which are normally presented as a panel with the three pictures seen side by side.
While this approach is also acceptable for projected images, the most important thing is that they illustrate a story or common theme, with each picture being an essential part. No matter how excellent a single image might be, it will not succeed in this type of competition unless it complements the other two pictures.
Although there were only twenty entrants for this competition, this still meant that Alan had sixty pictures to comment on. While his main comments related to how well the sets held together, he also gave plenty of helpful and encouraging feedback on the content and composition of individual pictures.
Commended sets were Daffodil in Ice by Alastair Cochrane, Ice Patterns by Gerry Simpson and Buried at the Baltic by Margaret Whittaker while those highly commended were Holy Cross Church by Dave Dixon, Washing Lines in Portugal by Ian Atkinson and There’s No Business Like Show Business by Micheal Mundy.
Fourth place went to Andrew Mackie for Sea Eagle, a fine set of action wildlife shots, and third place was awarded to Richard Stent for Venetian Glass, a well composed colourful set of almost graphic still life images. Nick Johnson took second prize with The Reds, a superb set of exciting images of the Red Arrows in action but winner of first place was Dru Dodd with Northumbria Nights, three stunning night-time images, any one of which would be worthy of a prize on its own.
Report by David Carter
Alnwick and District Camera Club’s latest meeting featured presentations by club members Jean Findlay and Valerie Atkinson.
Jean has had a camera since childhood, using her photographs primarily as a memory bank, although in more recent years she has created photobooks and audio visual presentations and has successfully entered pictures in camera club competitions. Having spent her childhood in Kenya, she returned there in the 1970s and joined fellow members of the Mountain Club of Kenya in exploring some of the more remote regions of the country. Travelling in her trusty VW Beetle along dusty roads, dry river beds and trackless bush and desert, Jean recorded her adventures with her camera. Her wonderful colour slides included not only some spectacular mountain landscapes but also pictures of the wide range of country that she travelled through and the people and wildlife that she encountered along the way.
Jean completed her presentation with a short but exquisite audio visual record of a snowy day in Eglingham.
Valerie on the other hand did not show great interest in photography until she moved from Switzerland to India in 2007. Moving into a flat on the outskirts of the city of Mumbai in the monsoon season with little in the way of view but a building site, Valerie’s first impressions of the country left much to be desired. However, once she began to explore her surroundings, she realised that she needed a camera to record the unique and vibrant atmosphere of this teeming metropolis.
Valerie’s wonderful photographs prove that she is a natural photographer with a gift for capturing every aspect of life around her, from the squalid to the beautiful. Her fascinating images of street markets and street food, auto rickshaws, traffic jams, festivals, cricket matches, characterful people and colourful clothing created a memorable impression of a place that Valerie had clearly grown to love.
To complete a fine evening’s entertainment, John Thompson showed a gallery of two contrasting sequences of monochrome prints, some made from lantern slides of scenes in the Balkans taken around 1914, while an experimental series of close ups of musicians and their instruments were taken at this year’s Alnwick Music Festival.
Report by David Carter
Alnwick and District Camera Club welcomed back David Hall from Gateshead to judge the first open monochrome print competition of the season. David is a frequent and welcome visitor to the club, renowned for his flamboyant and entertaining style of judging.
From his detailed comments on each entry, it was evident that he had spent a great deal of time and effort in considering every one of the fifty prints entered. This was clearly a labour of love for David, whose praise for the commended and winning entries was little short of rapturous. However, he was quick to find encouraging words for every picture and offered plenty of useful advice on composition, printing technique and choice of mounts and paper.
Commended prints were Alms by Ian Atkinson, Executive Shoe Shine by Jane Coltman and Into The Fog by David Burn. Those highly commended were Misty Morning, Clapham Commute by Micheal Mundy, Cafeology by Alastair Cochrane, and Shear, also by Alastair. In fourth place was A Flower For the Fallen, 9/11 by Laine Baker, a poignant image of a white rose placed on an inscribed tablet of the New York Memorial, while third place went to British Airways by Nick Johnson, a dramatically lit and well composed image of an aircraft in its hangar. Jane Coltman’s wonderfully atmospheric, timeless image entitled Misty Morning, Alnwick, was awarded second place, but winner of first place was Nick Johnson with Drops, a very striking, high contrast close-up image of water droplets on a leaf.
Report by David Carter
Members of Alnwick and District Camera Club enjoyed a rewarding and enjoyable evening when Tom Dodd gave a presentation entitled More Than Mountains. Based in North Wales, Tom is very much an outdoor man who is not only a keen mountaineer, skier and explorer but also a very fine photographer.
Tom’s presentation was relaxed and engaging, underpinned by an evident love of wilderness and landscape photography. With great enthusiasm he delved into piles and boxes of superb colour and monochrome prints which he displayed in series of panels. Welsh mountains and slate figured strongly amongst his pictures but he also showed some wonderful Alpine landscapes, taken during his many climbing expeditions.
Tom’s modest approach could not conceal his intrepid nature as he gave the impression that climbing the Matterhorn involved little more than an energetic scramble. This was further reinforced by his account of a month long visit to an unexplored region of Greenland where he and a party of fellow enthusiasts scaled a number of mountains that had never been climbed before. The resulting pictures from this visit included some spectacular snowy landscapes lit by the midnight sun.
Tom also enjoys photographing people and a visit to Nepal resulted in a fine series of portraits that reflected the nature of his subjects in a gentle and sympathetic manner. Closer to home, his images of participants in the annual pilgrimage to the summit of Croagh Patrick in County Mayo successfully captured different aspects of this unique event.
While not classing himself as a nature photographer, Tom’s beautiful pictures of mountain flowers, taken both at home and abroad, displayed yet another facet of his fine photographic skills.
Throughout his presentation Tom’s enthusiasm shone through and, at the end of the evening, we felt privileged to have shared his love of photography and the great outdoors.
Report by David Carter
Dave Richardson from Ryton and District Camera Club was the judge for Alnwick and District Camera Club’s latest open colour print competition. Dave is a frequent and welcome visitor to the club and once again proved to be an excellent judge, talking about each print in detail and offering plenty of practical and encouraging advice. There was a strong entry of sixty three prints, covering a wide range of topics from portraits and landscapes to wildlife and abstract, presenting Dave with a considerable challenge to select the winners. However, it is evident that he enjoys looking at photographs and takes a great deal of time and trouble over considering the entries before making his decisions.
Commended were Eagle Eye by Margaret Whittaker, Business as Usual by Nick Johnson and Fun, also by Nick . Those highly commended were Looking for Supper by John Whittaker, Taking a Break by Laine Baker and View from Ben Nevis by Barry Robertson. In fourth place was Amble Curfew, a well-seen, high dynamic range street scene by Gordon Farrington, while in third place was Spirit Island by Margaret Whittaker, a fine Canadian landscape with beautiful lake reflections of clouds and mountains. Nick Johnson’s spectacular, well-timed close-up image of aircraft in flight, Avoiding Action, took second place but first place went to Alastair Cochrane for Monoliths, a most impressive modern architectural image of the highest quality that was both rich in colour and strong in composition
Report by David Carter
Alnwick and District Camera Club’s latest visiting speaker was Stephen Byard, an award winning landscape photographer based in North Yorkshire. The title of his talk, Before and After, covered a wide range of technical and artistic aspects of photography.
Stephen started by extolling the virtues of shift lenses for creating panoramic landscape pictures and also demonstrated how these lenses can be used to create pictures with an amazing depth of field. Later in his talk Stephen also showed the impressive quality of images that can be obtained using large format film cameras.
However, such specialist gear requires a considerable financial outlay and Stephen was quick to acknowledge that good pictures can be taken with much more modest equipment. He demonstrated this by showing a fine set of images taken with an affordable compact digital camera.
Stephen also showed a series of before and after pictures where he had digitally manipulated the original to produce the picture he wished to make. This often involved enlarging the foreground or background, importing skies from other pictures, or combining several different images to create a completely new picture. While these modified images may not have been to everyone’s taste, they were certainly very striking and there was no doubting Stephen’s outstanding imagination and technical expertise.
Along the way, Stephen provided a wealth of information and ideas for photographers of all levels of expertise. He emphasized how valuable it is to visit the same locality several times, showing pictures taken at different times of day and in different seasons. Many of his pictures were of the coast and here he showed contrasting images taken at low and high tide.
Stephen also advised new photographers to look around them and not become too focussed on the obvious when taking their pictures. There are pictures everywhere, he said, and the outstanding range of images that he displayed during the course of the evening was ample proof of this.
Report by David Carter
These reports appear in the Northumberland Gazette.
Alnwick and District Camera Club welcomed award winning photographer Peter Rees to give a presentation entitled A Printer’s Progress. Sponsored by on-linepaper, Peter’s photographic interests range widely from landscape and documentary pictures to portraiture and figure studies.
His well illustrated talk covered a period of some forty years, commencing with monochrome darkroom prints and eventually moving to those produced exclusively by digital methods. It soon became clear why his work has proved so successful in competitions as he showed a most impressive succession of high quality prints, exhibiting his skills in both monochrome and colour photography. His accompanying talk, spiced with a gently mischievous sense of humour, gave interesting backgrounds to his pictures with valuable insights into the methods he employs to add impact to his final prints. He is not afraid to break the rules to achieve the effects he requires, even if the results are not always appreciated by everyone. Although himself a judge on the international exhibition circuit, his trenchant comments on the opinions of some club competition judges was amusing and, to many of us, reassuring.
Peter prefers misty and foggy days for his landscape photography, often adding to the atmosphere of his pictures by the use of infra red techniques. Many of his images had a distinct period feel to them but were none the worse for that. These included some of his figure studies, including one digital print which had been warmly sepia toned by soaking in tea.
The Scottish Islands have provided rich hunting grounds for Peter’s photography and he showed a series of fine landscapes and seascapes from Harris, Jura, Arran and North Uist.
A series of intriguing close-up images of sand and rocks proved his claim that there are pictures wherever you look.
Travel photography is another of Peter’s interests, illustrated by further first rate prints of scenes from various locations in Europe, North Africa and the U.S.A.
Throughout his talk, Peter’s enjoyment of photography shone through. A final series of his prints was displayed as a gallery so that members could scrutinise them more closely and discuss them amongst themselves, an appropriate end to another enjoyable evening.
Report by David Carter
The Light Fantastic was the title of David Taylor’s presentation when he visited Alnwick and District Camera Club. Based in Hexham, David is an award winning professional photographer who has also written and contributed to more than twenty books on photography.
David explained that working with light forms the essence of his photography. Using a full frame digital camera combined with graduated filters enables him to capture the full dynamic range of scenes without resorting to digital manipulation. An impressive series of landscape pictures, many taken in the Northumberland National Park, demonstrated how successful his methods are in achieving this. He showed how important it is to choose the right light conditions for a particular scene, sometimes involving a long wait or several visits to the same location.
With so many people now using digital cameras that will produce high quality pictures, it is an enormous challenge for the professional photographer to come up with pictures that are different enough to stand out from the crowd. David showed example of his pictures which did just that.
While preferring photography in the countryside, David also likes to photograph cities at night time. Dusk provides him with the best opportunities for striking images, particularly in wet weather. He showed some fine examples, including outstanding views of the Tyne bridges and Quayside.
Further examples of his photographic expertise included some superb landscapes of Scotland and some very atmospheric images taken by moonlight. He also showed some impressive images of star trails including one which featured Sycamore Gap with the iconic tree illuminated by torch light, a fine example of doing something different.
David’s final sequence of pictures was of flowers, taken with a macro lens on overcast days when the diffused light produces the sort of images he is looking for. Using his lenses at their widest aperture, he reduces the depth of focus so that only a small part of the image is in focus. These pictures had a subtle beauty of their own and provided an inspirational end to an enjoyable and instructive evening.
Report by David Carter
‘What I did this Summer’ was the theme of Alnwick and District Camera Club‘s first members evening of the season. Eleven members showed pictures which ranged over a wide range of subjects. Unusually, only two members showed pictures taken outside of the United Kingdom. Even Doug Ross’s excellent pictures of the Tour de France were taken in Yorkshire.
Gordon Charlton and Val Atkinson were the only exceptions, both with photographs of scenes taken in Italy.
Scotland was represented by Rosalie Cook Jurie’s landscapes of Islay, and Christine Grey’s action pictures taken at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Paul Penman had ventured south with views of Lewes, Hastings and Eastbourne, including images of the recently burnt out pier.
Back in Northumberland, John Thompson’s pictures included some striking views of the Angel of the North, while Tom Dundas showed flower portraits from local gardens and Geoffrey Bradford presented some thought-provoking images of Fisher Lane in Alnwick. Ian Atkinson’s timelapse photographs of local scenes were interesting examples of his experiments in this field.
Dru Dodd’s pictures included seabirds on the Farne Islands and landscapes with flowers but also featured a comprehensive series of wedding photographs demonstrating a wide range of approaches and techniques for undertaking this demanding subject.
To complete the evening, Peter Downs displayed his successful panel of prints submitted for Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society and Stanley Trafford showed a fascinating series of printed images of the sun taken through his telescope, a project only to be undertaken by those with specialist knowledge.
Report by David Carter
Alnwick and District Camera Club began its new season with a presentation by Richard Stent who has just commenced his second two year term as club chairman. Richard is a keen exponent of traditional monochrome film photography, developing and printing his pictures in his own darkroom.
Richard commenced his talk by showing pictures of his darkroom and explaining the various stages involved in processing film and prints. For those whose experience of photography is entirely digital, this kind of alchemy may seem to belong to another era but it still has its enthusiastic adherents.
A serious problem however, is the decreasing availability of film, papers and chemicals. While Richard manages to track down specialist suppliers through the internet, stocks are often limited. For this reason, he has installed a freezer in his darkroom containing a large supply of film and printing paper that will keep him busy for years to come.
Richard does not claim that the prints he produces are in any way superior to those produced by digital methods but the lure of the darkroom is still something he cannot resist and his results are certainly well worth the effort.
The second part of Richard’s talk dealt with the pictures themselves. Another of his enthusiasms is music so the first photographs he showed were of musical instruments and scenes from the amateur orchestra of which he is a member. A particularly fine set of images of the conductor demonstrated how effective monochrome can be in capturing the atmosphere of an occasion.
Richard also enjoys street photography, illustrated by a series of excellent pictures taken in Malta, Paris, Prague, Venice and places nearer to home.
A final series of long exposure pictures, capturing movement in a very dynamic way, was particularly impressive as, unlike the digital photographer, Richard has to wait until his pictures are processed to find out if they have been successful or not.
Liberally spiced with Richard’s good humour, this was an entertaining and enlightening evening, providing an excellent introduction, not only to film photography but also to the art of black and white photography in general.
Report by David Carter
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